Hygienic paper

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to hygienic paper in web form for moist applications that preferably consists of mutually contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass with embedded reinforcement fibers and the reinforcement fibers have an increased tear strength on an initial moistening and at least partly lose their tear strength after an extended moistening, whereby the sheets disintegrate into smaller pieces over the course of the time after the moistening, at the latest in the sewer system. 
     The invention further relates to hygienic paper comprising individual sheets, wherein the sheets are each provided with at least one disintegration perforation that provides a disintegration of the sheets into smaller pieces over the course of the time after a moistening, at the latest in a sewer system.

The present invention relates to hygienic paper for moist applications that preferably consists of mutually contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation.

Hygiene wipes in the form of wet wipes are often used for a simple and gentle cleaning of the skin. Conventional wet wipes usually consist of different non-woven fabrics that are soaked in lotion. They thereby have a particularly high wet tear strength and nevertheless feel pleasant on the skin.

This high wet tear strength has indeed proven to be particularly advantageous during use, but poses a greater problem at a later point in time, namely on the disposal of the wipes used if a consumer does not dispose of the wet wipes properly in the trash, but rather in the toilet. Moist toilet paper is also known that is used on a large scale and almost always enters the sewer system via the toilet flush.

In particular due to the high wet tear strength, such wet wipes or moist toilet paper namely decompose poorly or not at all in the sewer system and can therefore lead to huge blockages of the drain pipes over time. Such blockages of wastewater systems not only cause huge costs, but can also damage the wastewater pipes.

In view of these points, it is an object of the invention to provide hygienic paper that both has a sufficient wet strength and is easily and quickly decomposable.

In accordance with the invention, this object is satisfied by means of four different but also combinable solution approaches by hygienic paper in accordance with any one of the claims 1 to 4.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the hygienic paper in particular consists of a cellulose mass with embedded reinforcement fibers. The reinforcement fibers have an increased tear strength on an initial moistening and at least partly lose their tear strength after an extended moistening, whereby the sheets disintegrate into smaller pieces over the course of the time after the moistening, at the latest in the sewer system.

The reinforcement fibers can consist of hydrophobically treated fibers, for example of cellulose, wherein the hydrophobicity decreases after a sufficient time in wastewater and the reinforcement fibers lose their strength. The ratio of reinforcement fibers to the remaining cellulose mass is chosen such that the hygienic paper nevertheless absorbs so much moisture at the latest in the sewer system that the fibers separate from one another and the sheets of the hygienic paper disintegrate into smaller pieces and thus cannot cause blockages in the sewer system.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, hygienic paper in web form for moist applications is provided that preferably consists of mutually contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass and is characterized in that the hygienic paper is present in at least two layers, and in that the lignin portion in one of the layers is higher than the lignin portion in the further layer or in the further layers from which the lignin portion is removed.

Since lignin is water-repellent, the layer with the higher lignin portion can contribute towards the hygienic paper having a higher tear strength than, for example, conventional toilet paper in which the lignin portions are deliberately flushed out to increase the absorbency of the paper. It has further been recognized in accordance with the invention that the layer with the higher lignin portion is washed out in the wastewater after a dwell time such that the lignin no longer contributes to the strength and the toilet paper disintegrates.

In accordance with a third aspect of the invention, hygienic paper in web form for moist applications is provided that preferably consists of mutually contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass and is characterized in that the hygienic paper is manufactured from a paper towel material.

This proposal is based on the recognition that paper towels indeed lose their strength in the moist state, but this loss of strength is so pronounced only after a total soaking that the hygienic paper disintegrates in the sewer system, but not when used as moist toilet paper.

A further aspect of the invention, which can also be used in combination with the first, second and third aspects of the invention, is that the sheets are each provided with at least one disintegration perforation that provides a disintegration of the sheets into smaller pieces over the course of the time after a moistening, at the latest in a sewer system. In this respect, it can in particular be a case of hygienic paper having the properties described above. The disintegration perforations represent additional perforations to the tear-off perforations and are designed such that they do not yet yield to the moisture on an initial moistening—i.e. on the use of the hygienic paper—but rather only provide a disintegration of the sheets into smaller pieces in the sewer system. Furthermore, the disintegration perforations are formed so that they do not yield on the tearing off of sheets from the web and the sheets only tear off at the tear-off perforations provided for this purpose. This can, for example, be realized by perforation holes that have different sizes and that are differently spaced apart.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the reinforcement fibers can be dissolved in wastewater. Due to a dissolving of the reinforcement fibers, the hygienic paper can yield to the moisture and disintegrate into smaller pieces. Provision can in particular be made that the hygienic paper already disintegrates into smaller pieces after a comparatively short time still in the toilet, for example during the flushing process, in order to also prevent blockages in the drain pipes that directly adjoin the toilets. From an ecological point of view, it is furthermore particularly advantageous if the total hygienic paper, including the reinforcement fibers, can be dissolved in water. Not only the clogging problem can thereby be solved, but no wet wipes have to be fished out of the tanks in the wastewater treatment plants any more either. Since conventional wet wipes namely do not dissolve in water, these wet wipes have to be filtered out at the latest in the clarifying tanks and then disposed of.

In accordance with a further embodiment, the reinforcement fibers are provided with a hydrophobic coating that loses its effect in wastewater. An example of this is the lignin already described above that is water-repellent. However, other hydrophobic coatings are also possible that achieve the same effect.

It is an embodiment variant of the invention that the tear-off perforation and the disintegration perforation are slit perforations and/or hole perforations. The tear-off perforations and the disintegration perforations are preferably formed differently to achieve the different tear strengths of the respective perforation. On the tearing off of one or more sheets from the web, only the respective tear-off perforation should thus tear open. In the sewer system, the disintegration perforations subsequently provide the disintegration of the sheets into smaller pieces. The slits or the holes of the disintegration and tear-off perforations can in particular be of different lengths or sizes and, if necessary, can be equally or differently spaced apart from one another.

Slit perforations of disintegration perforations preferably have a length between 6 and 8 mm, while the slit perforations of tear-off perforations preferably have a length between 3 and 5 mm. The spacing between the perforations can preferably each be in a range of 0.5 and 1.5 mm.

An embodiment provides that the tear-off perforation extends in a straight line along the total width of the hygienic paper, whereby a simple tearing off of one or more sheets can be achieved.

It is furthermore conceivable that the tear-off perforations each extend in parallel with one another. A web can thus be divided in a simple manner into many similarly formed sheets. The sheets can therefore be rectangular, square, or trapezoidal or can have the shape of a parallelogram.

In principle, tear-off perforations are also possible that, for example, provide that a single sheet has a triangular shape. In this embodiment, the tear-off perforations accordingly extend substantially in zigzag shape along the total length of the web so that two consecutive tear-off perforations move apart at an angle and form a triangular shape with one edge of the web.

In accordance with an embodiment, it is also conceivable that the disintegration perforation extends in wave shape along the total length and/or along the width of the hygienic paper. Thus, the sheets can disintegrate into uniformly or non-uniformly shaped pieces or strips.

In accordance with a further embodiment, the disintegration perforation extends in zigzag shape along the total length and/or along the width of the hygienic paper.

Such a disintegration perforation also provides that the sheets of the hygienic paper disintegrate into uniform or non-uniformly shaped strips or pieces.

A further embodiment is that a plurality of disintegration perforations, possibly different disintegration perforations, are provided. A combination of a plurality of and possibly different disintegration perforations can, under certain circumstances, initiate the disintegration of a sheet of the hygienic paper even better. The more disintegration perforations there are, the smaller the pieces the hygienic paper can disintegrate into in the sewer system. The number and relative position of the disintegration perforations to one another on the hygienic paper can consequently determine the number and size of the pieces a respective sheet disintegrates into in the sewer system.

An embodiment also provides that the disintegration perforations extend over the hygienic paper such that at least some disintegration perforations intersect at least once. This can further facilitate the disintegration of the hygienic paper since those points at which the perforations intersect will tear open even more easily in the water of the sewer system.

In accordance with a variant of the invention, the spacings between the individual perforations of the tear-off perforation are smaller than the spacings between individual perforations of the disintegration perforation so that the perforations have different tear strengths. It should thus be avoided that a disintegration perforation already yields on the tearing off of a sheet.

In accordance with an embodiment, the hygienic paper consists of a plurality of layers, in particular two to five layers. For convenience reasons, it has been shown that multilayer hygienic paper is preferred by the consumers. The multilayer hygienic paper can in particular be embossed in order, on the one hand, to connect the plurality of layers to one another and, on the other hand, to achieve the desired softness of the hygienic paper through a structured surface.

It is in particular also possible that one or more of the layers have the reinforcement fibers while the remaining layers do not. Thus, some layers, for example the middle layers, can provide the desired wet tear strength, while the outer layers serve for the desired softness and absorbability. In addition, the multilayer hygienic paper can also have disintegration perforations to further assist the disintegration.

In accordance with a variant, the hygienic paper has a width between 7 and 14 cm, preferably between 8 and 12 cm, particularly preferably between 9 and 11 cm. These dimensions have not proven to be particularly advantageous in the past.

In accordance with a further variant, the hygienic paper is wound onto tubes, in particular cardboard tubes, to form a roll. Thus, large quantities of hygienic paper can be easily distributed and consumed without large quantities of (individual) packagings being necessary. This has also proven to be particularly advantageous from an ecological point of view since an unnecessary amount of, for example, plastic packaging can be omitted.

An embodiment also provides that the hygienic paper is produced as tissue paper. Tissue paper has proven to be particularly advantageous in moist applications since it is particularly absorbent and can thus absorb a lot of moisture. At the same time, tissue paper also has a high softness, whereby the high comfort requirements of the end users can simultaneously be satisfied.

In accordance with a variant, the individual sheets have a length between 10 and 20 cm, preferably between 13 and 17 cm, particularly preferably between 14 and 16 cm. This length has proven to be particularly advantageous and comfortable in practice.

The invention will be explained in more detail in the following purely by way of example with reference to advantageous embodiments and to the Figures. In these, there are shown:

FIG. 1 : schematically a wound-up web of hygienic paper with disintegration perforations;

FIG. 2 to FIG. 4 : different embodiment variants of disintegration perforations; and

FIG. 5 a specific embodiment of hygienic paper with disintegration perforations.

In FIG. 1 , the hygienic paper 10 in accordance with the invention is schematically shown in the form of a web 12 that is wound on a tube 14 to form a roll. The web is divided into individual sheets 18 by tear-off perforations 16. The individual sheets 18 thus all have the same length L.

In addition, the hygienic paper 10 and its sheets 18 respectively have disintegration perforations 20 that each extend in zigzag shape along the total length of the web 12. Only for reasons of simplicity, the perforations 16, 18 are only shown on the unwound part of the web 12. In reality, the perforations 16, 18 spread out along the total length of the hygienic paper. The two disintegration perforations 20 in this respect extend precisely such that they intersect one another again and again. The points of intersection 22 represent particularly sensitive breaking points and in this respect help the sheets 18 to disintegrate better into individual pieces in the water of the sewer system.

In this embodiment, on the disintegration of the sheets 18, disintegration pieces in the form of triangles D and in the form of rhombuses R are produced whose area is small enough so that a clogging of drain pipes can be avoided.

Further embodiments of disintegration perforations 20 can be seen in FIGS. 2 to 4 . For reasons of simplicity, the tear-off perforations 16 are formed as longer slits 24, while the disintegration perforations 20 are substantially shorter slits 24 and thus, distributed over the width of the web 12, substantially more slits 24 are also distributed. However, other shapes and variations for the tear-off and disintegration perforations 16, 20 are also possible, as can, for example, be seen in FIGS. 3 to 5 .

Accordingly, a part of a web 12 of hygienic paper 10 is shown in FIG. 2 that has a plurality of parallel tear-off perforations 16 that are drawn along the total width of the web 12 and that are all spaced apart from one another at a spacing L that is equal to the length of a sheet 18.

In this example, the disintegration perforations 20 are also straight lines that are arranged in parallel with one another and that extend along the total width of the web 12. However, the spacing between the disintegration perforations 20 is smaller than the spacing L between the tear-off perforations 16 to ensure that a sheet 18 disintegrates into smaller strips. Therefore, in the embodiment of FIG. 2 , each sheet 18 has two disintegration perforations 20.

FIG. 3 , in contrast, shows an embodiment in which two disintegration perforations 20 spread out in wave shape along the total length of the web 12. On the disintegration of the individual sheets 18, three differently shaped pieces are thus produced from each sheet 18. In practice, what shape exactly the disintegration pieces have usually does not play a substantial role as long as they are small enough not to clog a drain pipe.

The disintegration perforations 20 of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are each shown as solid lines to illustrate schematically that the individual perforations of a perforation can also have such small and such close spacings from one another that they are barely visible to the naked eye.

FIG. 4 shows a further embodiment of the web 12 in which three disintegration perforations 20 are provided. Analogously to the two disintegration perforations 20 of FIG. 1 , which extend in zigzag shape, further disintegration perforations 20 are provided that—analogously to FIG. 2 —extend in parallel with the tear-off perforations 16. The sheet length L can hereby be selected larger if, during use, the sheet 18 is, for example, to be folded at a folding line F (that is imaginary). The folding line F drawn in FIGS. 4 and 5 in this respect represents a purely imaginary line that is shown purely for an easier understanding, but could also be printed on the paper if desired. However, due to the additional disintegration perforations 20, a disintegration into many smaller pieces is nevertheless given so that the clogging problem mentioned can be avoided.

In addition to the disintegration perforations 20 shown, in the different embodiments of FIGS. 1 to 4 , a type of hygienic paper can be selected that has the reinforcement fibers in accordance with the invention and thus additionally contributes towards the hygienic paper 10 indeed initially having a certain wet tear strength, but disintegrating over the course of the time in the water of the sewer system.

Furthermore, all the webs can be designed in multiple layers and/or embossed in order also to meet the high comfort demands that a consumer places on hygiene wipes.

In a specific embodiment, as is shown in FIG. 5 , provision is made that the Hydraspun paper of the Suominen company, which is provided with additional disintegration perforations 20 that allow the individual sheets 18 to disintegrate into smaller pieces, is used as the hygienic paper 10. In this respect, the disintegration perforations 20 are formed by slits that have a length of 6.8 mm and that are each spaced apart from one another by 1 mm. The tear-off perforations are likewise formed by slits that each have a spacing of 1 mm from one another. However, the length of the slits of the tear-off perforation amounts to only 4 mm in each case so that the tear-off perforation yields earlier than the disintegration perforation (see FIG. 5 ). The dimensions specified above represent preferred values, but should not be considered as restrictive. Preferred ranges for the values are specified in the introduction to the description.

Provision can furthermore be made that the hygienic paper roll is inserted into a dispenser for moistened toilet paper in accordance with the example of EP 2 367 467 B1. Thus, moistened toilet paper can be provided to a consumer and can be safely flushed in the toilet without blockages arising in the drain pipes.

REFERENCE NUMERALS

-   10 hygienic paper -   12 web -   14 tube -   16 tear-off perforation -   18 sheet -   20 disintegration perforation -   22 point of intersection -   24 slit -   D triangle -   F folding line -   L length -   R rhombus 

1.-19. (canceled)
 20. Hygienic paper for moist applications that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass with embedded reinforcement fibers and the reinforcement fibers have an increased tear strength on an initial moistening and at least partly lose their tear strength after an extended moistening, whereby the sheets disintegrate into smaller pieces over the course of the time after the moistening, at the latest in the sewer system.
 21. Hygienic paper in web form for moist applications that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass, wherein the hygienic paper is present in at least two layers, and wherein the lignin portion in one of the layers is higher than the lignin portion in the further layer or in the further layers from which the lignin portion is removed.
 22. Hygienic paper in web form for moist applications that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass, wherein the hygienic paper is manufactured from a paper towel material.
 23. Hygienic paper that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, in accordance with claim 20, wherein the sheets are each provided with at least one disintegration perforation that provides a disintegration of the sheets into smaller pieces over the course of the time after a moistening, at the latest in a sewer system.
 24. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the reinforcement fibers can be dissolved in wastewater.
 25. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the reinforcement fibers are provided with a hydrophobic coating that loses its effect in wastewater.
 26. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 22, wherein the tear-off perforation and the disintegration perforation are slit perforations and/or hole perforations.
 27. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the tear-off perforation extends in a straight line along the total width of the hygienic paper.
 28. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the tear-off perforations each extend in parallel with one another.
 29. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the disintegration perforation extends in wave shape along the total length and/or along the width of the hygienic paper.
 30. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the disintegration perforation extends in zigzag shape along the total length and/or along the width of the hygienic paper.
 31. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein a plurality of disintegration perforations, possibly different disintegration perforations, are provided.
 32. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 31, wherein the disintegration perforations extend over the hygienic paper such that at least some disintegration perforations intersect at least once.
 33. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the spacings between the individual perforations of the tear-off perforation are smaller than the spacings between individual perforations of the disintegration perforation.
 34. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a plurality of layers.
 35. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the hygienic paper has a width between 7 and 14 cm.
 36. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the hygienic paper is wound onto tubes.
 37. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the hygienic paper is produced as tissue paper.
 38. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the individual sheets have a length between 10 and 18 cm.
 39. Hygienic paper that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the sheets are each provided with at least one disintegration perforation that provides a disintegration of the sheets into smaller pieces over the course of the time after a moistening, at the latest in a sewer system. 